Gracedale Reports Lack Of Nurses County Council Will Be Asked To Raise Pay To End Shortage

June 18, 1986|by PEG RHODIN, The Morning Call

Northampton County Council will be asked to raise the salaries of nurses at Gracedale in a move to solve a critical shortage in its professional staff.

Joyce Kercsmar, assistant director of nursing, said yesterday that the county home for the aged in Upper Nazareth Township has lost 30 nurses in the past six months and has been able to recruit only 11 replacements.

"If it continues at the same rate, we will not be able to operate by the end of September," Kercsmar told members of County Council's personnel committee.

County Director of Human Services Jerry Friedman proposed an increase for registered nurses from $8.69 to $9.59 to start and to eliminate a low "probationary" pay for licensed practical nurses.

A personal letter went to each nurse graduating at Northampton County Area Community College in May, and Gracedale received "not one reply," Kercsmar said.

"Our highest paid registered nurses get $10.06 an hour," she said. "In all the other hospitals in the area, salaries are much higher than ours - especially the starting rate."

She said she received five responses to newspaper advertisements, but "there were absolutely no interviews after they learned our starting rate."

Assistant administrator Harold Russell said Gracedale is "mainly looking for relief employees to cover on weekends for the full-time staff."

"We don't have the turnover with full-timers," he explained. "Where we have the problem is attracting relief, part-time employees."

Council President Gerald Seyfried, whose wife works part-time as a nurse at Gracedale, warned, "Even if you pay them 50 cents more an hour, you're still going to be losing them to hospitals. If you have a skill, you will go to a place that will pay for it."

County Administrator Joseph Zajacek said, "Where we're losing them is the starters. We are trying to make the starting rate competitive."

County Executive Eugene Hartzell added, "We don't have many quitting and going somewhere else. We have trouble bringing them in."

Friedman said Gracedale is "getting a sicker patient, a patient who requires more care. There have been a lot of sacrifices, and we couldn't have done the work without the people we have on board. During the real critical hours - weekends, holidays - we are having a difficult time. It is bad for morale."

Friedman said that while the starting wage for practical nurses is "not bad, competitive with the market rate," Gracedale has found itself short by 42 staffers. He said he believed it was because during a 400-hour probationary period, practical nurses are paid only $6 an hour.

"We want to go back to the union and get a waiver in the contract to get rid of the 15 percent reduction in pay during the probationary period,for this year only," Friedman said. "And we recommend that registered nurses' starting pay go from $8.69 to $9.59, with all other R.N.s to be increased one pay step accordingly."

He estimated that the raises for the registered nurses would cost the county $61,680 a year but assured the council members that no budget amendment would be needed "at the present time."

"This is not unprecedented as Gracedale did use these employment agencies on prior occasions," he said. "This, however, is very costly and is only seen as a temporary solution to be used under the most critical situations."

Committee chairman Gordon Heller asked if the proposed wage boosts would bring the county "in line with what's going on out there, or is it just a stab at solving the problem and you will have to come back later?"

"It's a step forward," Friedman said. "We will just have to continue to monitor the situation. All we know is we are losing staff now and have to stop the downward spiral."